Spice Fin to seal broking firm, AMC buys by March

Spice Finance, a wholly owned subsidiary of BK Modi Group’s Spice Global, is in advanced stage of acquiring an asset management company (AMC) and a broking and distribution company, and both the transactions are likely to be concluded by March, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, president of the group’s global financial services said on Wednesday.

Spice Investments & Finance Pvt Ltd, known as Spice Finance, plans to expand its financial services portfolio through inorganic growth and is on an acquisition spree.

The company is sitting on a cash pile of nearly Rs 3,000 crore raised through the sale of its stake in mobile services company Spice Communications.

The group plans to foray into asset management, broking & distribution businesses through acquisitions and into micro-finance through greenfield operations, he said.

The group is also looking at acquiring a money transfer company in Nepal, he said.

It had forayed into the money changing business in September through acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in Wall Street Finance Ltd, a forex and money transfer company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) which is in the process of being renamed as Spice Money.

Bandyopadhyay, though, declined to comment on the group’s probable investments in each of these businesses.

“We want to be up and running in the next financial year, both asset management, and broking and distribution,” he said.